I feel very honored that I got a chance to work with Maya Angelou and Oprah Winfrey.

I actually think that bass is probably the instrument that has evolved in a quantum leap compared to other instruments. It's the instrument that's evolved the most, especially with how it's perceived. And even how it's played, and how it's viewed from a point of view of commerce, like with the music industry.

Maya Angelou is a very prolific writer. You can read her stuff down once and sort of walk away, but if you really want to get the richness of what she is saying you have to check it out a couple of times.

I live a different way today. I have a family, and they are a priority for me. These days, I no longer wake up in the morning and worry if my bass is tuned properly and practice for hours and hours on end. I don't perform as much, but when I do, there's such magic to working in front of a live audience.

After my last solo album in '93, I got heavily into the film-composing thing. I didn't really have much to say... I was going through a divorce at that point, and to be quite honest, I really wasn't in the mood for making a CD then.

We had these huge amplifiers, and the band's energy level was just astounding. I recently saw a picture taken near the gig of myself, John McLaughlin and Tony sitting on this rock. God, we were so young. It's the only time that the three of us were together.